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Twanger Gove sent back to school for ukulele lessons

Michael Gove was inspired to play the ukelele by George Formby (Peter Nicholls)

HE WILL not be the first politician intent on calling the tune. Michael Gove,
the education secretary, is to have lessons in playing the ukulele to take
his mind off the pressures of his high-profile cabinet job.

Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, a journalist on The Times, has signed him up for a
course to learn how to play the guitar-like instrument at the Idler Academy
near the family home in west London.

She gave Gove a ukulele as a birthday present last year, but he did not know
how to play it and is understood to have disturbed the peace at home with
his untrained twanging.

“The genesis of this is that the Gove family all love Mumford &
Sons,” said a friend.

The band is part of a folk-rock movement that also includes groups such as
Beirut and has brought instruments such as the ukulele back to popularity.